Jesse Ernest Wilkins Sr. (February 1, 1894 – January 19, 1959) was a U.S.

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

, labor leader,

undersecretary Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is a ...

in the

Eisenhower administration Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure as the 34th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1953, and ended on January 20, 1961. Eisenhower, a Republican from Kansas, took office following his landslide victor ...

and both the first

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

to be appointed to a sub-cabinet position in the United States Government and the first to attend

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

cabinet-level meetings. After a falling-out with Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell, Wilkins resigned from his sub-cabinet post in 1958, but continued to serve on the U.S.

Civil Rights Commission The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (CCR) is a bipartisan, independent commission of the United States federal government, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 during the Dwight D. Eisenhower, Eisenhower administration, that is charged with ...

Education and early career

Wilkins was the son of a Missouri Baptist preacher. He studied

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

and then attended the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time facul ...

in the 1920s. He was a member of its

Phi Beta Kappa Society The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

and then practiced law locally for several years.Lawrence-Lightfoot, Sara
Respect
Da Capo Press, 2000, ,

Public service

In 1954, Wilkins was appointed by President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

as Undersecretary of Labor for International Labor Affairs (UL-ILA), thus becoming the first African-American to attend White House cabinet level meetings in the absence of his superior, Labor Secretary James Mitchell."To the White House"
''Time'', August 30, 1954 Wilkins had previously served the Eisenhower administration as acting chairman of the ''President's Committee on Government Contracts'' at the request of Val Washington.Mjagkij, Nina
''Organizing Black America: an encyclopedia of African American associations''
Taylor & Francis, 2001, , During his tenure with the administration he was a member of ''Equality Committee'', working with E. Frederic Morrow, Val Washington, Joseph Douglas, James Nabrit Jr. and

Samuel Pierce Samuel Riley Pierce Jr. (September 8, 1922 – October 31, 2000) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 8th United States secretary of housing and urban development from 1981 to 1989 during the administration of Ronald Reagan. ...

. Still earlier he had been a member of Eisenhower's President's Committee on Governmental Employment Policy (PCGEP) board when he was with the Labor Department. In 1957, Labor Secretary Mitchell began working toward having Wilkins removed from his post, beginning by having Wilkins appointed to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, where he became the first Black member. When Wilkins did not immediately resign, Mitchell applied pressure. He pushed back against a position paper that Wilkins proposed to deliver to the 1958 meeting of the U.N.'s

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

, then announced three days before the conference that Wilkins would be excluded from the meeting. Three days after the US delegation left for Geneva without him, Wilkins had a heart attack that hospitalized him for three months. Returning to work in July, 1958, he no longer had a full-time secretary. On August 5, 1958, Wilkins met with President Eisenhower to plead for his job, saying that he needed six more months to qualify for a civil service pension. (The Civil Rights Commission job was unpaid.) Eisenhower's response was that Mitchell was entitled to replace Wilkins. On November 6, 1958, Wilkins submitted his resignation and Mitchell named his replacement: George C. Lodge, the 35-year-old son of

Henry Cabot Lodge Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850November 9, 1924) was an American politician, historian, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. A member of the History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served in the United States ...

. After resigning from his sub-cabinet post, Wilkins continued to serve on the Civil Rights Commission until his death two months later from another heart attack. While investigating charges that Black voting rights had been violated, his work with the six-member

was hampered in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama. Named for Continental Army major general Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River on the Gulf Coastal Plain. The population was 2 ...

when he was refused accommodation at the hotel where the other commission members were staying. He subsequently found a room for himself at

Maxwell Air Force Base Maxwell Air Force Base , officially known as Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, is a United States Air Force (USAF) installation under the Air Education and Training Command (AETC). The installation is located in Montgomery, Alabama, United States. ...

. When the commission tried to subpoena county voting records, they discovered that then-Circuit Judge

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the List of longest-serving governors of U.S. s ...

had seized the records, and was threatening to jail any commission member who would interfere in his jurisdiction.Predictable Welcome
''Time'', December 15, 1958

Other achievements

In 1953, Wilkins became the first African American to serve on the nine-member Judicial Council of the

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

(which one, there are several, the United Methodist Church did not then exist and never has been the only one), when he was elected its secretary. The body is Methodism's nominal and administrative head. From 1954 to 1957, Wilkins served as U.S. representative on the governing body of the

. In 1959, Wilkins also became the first African-American president of the Judicial Council of the Methodist Church.Milestones
''Time'', February 2, 1959. He also served as the Grand Polemarch (national president) of

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a List of African-American fraternities, historically African American Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911, at Indiana University Bloomington, it has n ...

fraternity.

Personal life

Wilkins married Lucille Robinson (b. 1899 (?) - d. November 1964, Brooklyn, N.Y., aged 65), who taught school in Chicago, was secretary to the women's division of the

, and who also practiced law with her husband for 33 years. Together they raised three sons: J. Ernest Wilkins Jr., who achieved fame as a

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and

nuclear scientist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

; John Robinson Wilkins, who attended

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

at the age of 14,

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

at 19, was elected to the ''

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of ...

'', and went on to serve President Kennedy as general counsel for the

Agency for International Development Agency may refer to: Organizations * Institution, governmental or others ** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients ** Employment agency, a business that s ...

(AID); and Julian B. Wilkins, who practiced general and corporate law."This Week's Census: Died - Mrs. Lucille Robinson Wilkins"
'' Jet'', December 3, 1964. Wilkins died as a result of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

in Washington, D.C., in late January 1959, at the age of 64. Wilkins is the grandfather of two notable attorneys: David B. Wilkins, a professor at the Harvard Law School, and Timothy A. Wilkins, a partner with

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Freshfields LLP (formerly Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, or FBD) is a British multinational law firm headquartered in London, England, and a member of the so-called " Magic Circle". The firm has 28 offices in 17 jurisdictions across Asia, Europ ...

. In 2010 Wilkins' granddaughter, Carolyn Marie Wilkins, a Professor at the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

in Boston, wrote of her grandfather and her family more generally in her biography ''Damn Near White: An African American Family's Rise from Slavery to Bittersweet Success''.Wilkins, Carolyn Marie
''Damn Near White: An African American Family's Rise from Slavery to Bittersweet Success''
University of Missouri Press, 2010, , .

References

External links